T430 Wifi Defective

EASY FIX: buy a Intel wifi 2200 card (or 6205) from Amazon/eBay only cost me $20, replace the 6300 then I don't even need to contact lenovo doing saving me lots of time.

 

This makes me wonder if they're just replacing my motherboard blindly...

 

Possibly, but honestly it would be the next logical repair I would make if I could trust any of my current motherboard parts.

 

Had a follow-up conversation with Level 2 tech support today.

The consensus is that it is strictly an issue with the 6300 card in conjunction with our chassis. The card itself is perfectly good, but some aspect, whether mobo hardware or software (BIOS/chipset) is causing the problem. Intel 6205 and 2200 cards worked immediately and did not break both on our software image and standard preload.

The temporary solution they are providing is issuing out replacement Intel 6205 cards to use as a break/fix while the engineering team continues to work the issue. They don't have enough data yet to say whether or not all of our machines might eventually experience the problem.

 

Call support today, they are send me a new wifi card to try out.

 

Is it a replacement 6300 card, or did you request another type?

 

I have the same problem, and am wondering if the card the are sending out is as powerful as the 6300 that i paid an extra $$$ for. Am not really in love with my new T430, and this situation is not making me any happier with it.

 

I'm also having the same trouble. They told me to update drivers and it didn't work. Is there a way to contact Lenovo to fix this asap?

 

Should I request for a replacement of a different card? Will a new 6300 card work?

 

I'll let you guys know when I get it, the support rep doesn't really know what is going on. I think he was just going by his support script. I mention this thread to him, but he doesn't seem to be too interested.

 

When we tested in-house, another 6300 card did NOT work. It worked initially, then had the same disappearance coming out of standby / cold boot after 24 hours.

Again, Lenovo cannot as yet tell me if this will affect only the 10% of our machines that we have seen so far, or potentially ALL of them.

I would agree, if the 6205 is the only sure fix that you should be credited the price difference. The 6205 is a 2x2 antennae card, while the 6300 is a true N 3x3.

 

I should be receiving mine which got a motherboard replacement within the next couple of hours and let you know the result.

 

nope, problem still there!

 

I have a service rep coming out today to replace the motherboard and wifi card- will let everyone know how it goes.

 

Has anyone tried an intel advanced N card and is absolutely sure that it works flawlessly? If this is confirmed then I suppose this would be my only solution...

 

Lenovo sent the service rep the wrong motherboard! But he did replace the wifi card, and the problem returned, which is further proof that it is a motherboard issue.

 

No it's not. I got my motherboard replaced and problem is still there.

 

At least for my system, everyone I spoke to on the phone thought it was software, and had me re-install and spend hours updating the drivers. Maybe your new board also has the problem? I won't know on mine for a while as I wait for the new part. And if it was a bios problem I would think that it would affect every t430. I guess we will have to wait while lenovo engineers solve the problem.

 

Again, Lenovo Level 2 tech support has confirmed that it is the combination of the 6300 card and the motherboard that is causing the issue.

The only solution they can offer us at the moment is to change your card to a 6205. That is a known fix.

 

And are you going to continue with them investigating why this combination is defective or just go with 6205 solution?

 

Since I have 1500 of these machines to deal with, replacing all of them with a 6205 is not a solution. Or, rather, it would be a nightmare.

Currently our plan is to replace the 6300 with a 6205 on any user who has the issue. That number is up to 30+ machines now. We'll continue to work with tech support on a potential software fix that I could roll out to our fleet.

 

Note that to do this, you'll have to get a Lenovo-whitelisted version, or use a hacked BIOS version that has the whitelist removed. Lenovo-whitelisted cards generally cost a bit more, and are available on eBay.

 

I just got my motherboard and wifi card replaced (with a new 6300), and the problem seems to be fixed.

 

Got my problem fixed by downgrading to intel 6205, and, they refused to give me back the price difference. Nice job Lenovo ripping off your customers!

 

FYI, Intel is now looking at the problem directly (as it is their chipset and their wireless card) and has gotten it to reproduce in the lab environment. I will let you know if/when any details of a solution are provided.

 

Thanks for letting us know, keep us updated

 

They didn't send me a wifi card, they send me a big empty box instead.

Anyway, I haven't had problem with the wifi for a whole week.
I don't really know what I did, I was trying out an Alfa usb wifi and different version of the drivers.

I uninstalled access connection and turn power saving off on the intel.

 

Any update to this problem? I am enroute to placing an order fo ra new T430s and am wondering if I will be good with the 6300 or should just go with the stock wifi for now. I'd rather not have to upgrade my wifi down-the-road, so am curious to hear what you folks recommend at this stage. My configuration includes Win7 pro 64 bit, Intel i7, no bluetooth/broadband.

Thank you

 

My experience for what it is worth. I was having the same problem, called Lenovo. The person I was speaking to was very hard to understand because of our regional accent differences and then after a time he claimed that he could not maintain the remote connection, and told me that someone would call back the next day and in the meantime update my drivers yet again. No one ever called back, but I did update drivers for the third time. That was a week ago and I have only had the wifi card disappear once since then. It was after a restart. A warning message popped up saying that the MS Firewall was blocking something from Intel. Stupidly, I got rid of the message before taking a screenshot. I did another restart and all has been well since then.

 

My wifi problem is back this morning, anyone have any update?

 

Lenovo / Intel have had no updates for us as yet.

We have had 130+ machines show this issue of out our 1300+ distributed so far. Again, the only permanent fix we are aware of at this time is to use a different model wireless card.

 

thank you for this update. I ?foolishly? went for the 6300N but it seems like a 10% probability of error, which correlates with the various posting boards I've read. Unfortunately this error looks like a tough fluke that will persist and switching cards is the only solution!

 

It's been 2 weeks since I switched to 6230 and it's working like a charm.

 

Realtanu, could you send me links to any other discussions you know of for this issue?

We are still holding at that 10% replacement threshold; 140 out of 1400 distributed, with around 2-3 card swaps a day at this point. Intel has supposed exhausted software fix options via their diagnostics, and are moving on to "destructive hardware" testing. Which apparently means I am not getting my loaner systems back. They are giving me replacements.

 

This is a very strange problem, my wifi problem seem to went away on its own, for now.

I am having the exactly same problem with the 2nd hdd, if the laptop goes to sleep, the 2nd hdd disappear until the laptop reboot.
It was fixed by switching the ACHI controller back to the Microsoft one.

 

I went from occasionally losing wireless after coming out of sleep mode to having no wireless at all today. I was just on hold with Lenovo for over 2 hours. I finally gave up. I paid for the 2 year on-site warranty. It doesn't do much good, if you can't even get through to them.

 

Any update on this issue?

 

Had the exact same issue

UNINSTALL the Lenovo Power Manager Driver and Software... So far that's worked for me 3 days running.

the PowerManager seems to overtake the adapter (randomly) at startup.

 

Scratch that, didn't work. This puppy is dead - going back.

 

Is the Intel 6300 in the T430s also defective?

 

Anecdotally, the Intel 6300 was stable in 410/510 models, then behaved erratically in 420/520 models: connections got weaker or dropped at random intervals, and updating drivers did not help. This year, for 430/530 orders, the guys in my office decided to go with the Intel 6205 which seems to work well.

 

After sending multiple T430 machines to Intel Israel engineering, it has been determined that there is a level of electrical "noise" causing these card disconnects coming in and out of standby. Whether this is due to a flaw in a limited run of wireless cards or in a limited run of motherboards is still under discussion between Intel and and Lenovo. My personal belief is that it has to be a motherboard issue, as we had the same 6300 card last year is our T420 machines (1600 quantity) and had NO such issues. Taking one of those cards from last year and placing them in a T430 having this problem did not resolve the issue. Our break / fix remains the same -- replace the 6300 model card with a 6205. Out of the 155 machines resolved with this fix we have had ZERO return to us.

I am in contact with other institutions that have purchased T430s in the 1000+ quantities with this card -- they've reported no such trouble.

We have had no such issues with our T420 machines in the 18+ months they've been deployed.

 

I fixed the 6300 disconnecting problem in my T430 with Win7 by following the steps below:

If the 6300 has already been missing, shut down (instead of restarting) your computer, turn it on again and go to win7 . Hopefully, you will get your missing 6300 back.
In case the card is still missing, shut down your computer, unplug the AC adapter and remove Battery, plug the AC adapter, go to BIOS settings and restore the default setting, go the win7. You should get your 6300 back.


Then do the following:
1) Restart the computer and go to Bios Setting--->Config--->Wake On LAN, choose Disable, and then save and exit.

2) Under Win7, click Start button, right click Computer, click Properties, click Device Manager, double click Network Adapters, right click 6300 AGN, click Properties, then

a) go to Power Management, uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power,
b) go to Advanced, under Property box, choose Transmit Power and set its value to 4: Medium-High,
and click OK.



I did this without unistalling the Power Management Software and the Power Management Driver. I believe, the problem with the 6300 card has nothing to do with the power management. Hope the above help somewhat.

 

I just got my T430 with Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 AGN. It seemed that it's doing the missing wifi after sleep that you described. Have anybody find any solutions?

 

I have similar problem with my T430s, wifi 6205. It randomly disconnecting from wifi. Have tried many drivers but without effect.

 

I had the same problem and have gotten the wireless working.

I have brand new Lenovo T430 with the Intel Ultimate-N 6300 AGN wireless card. I took it out of the box and turned it on. The wireless did not work. The wireless switch on the side was on and the wireless light came on, but no wireless. The adapter did not show in the Device Manager. The laptop is running Windows 8 Pro. The wireless "bars" did not show when I selected Settings on the right side of the screen. The wireless on/off did not show under Settings->Change PC settings->Wireless either.

I connected an ethernet cable. Installed firefox. Googled "Ultimate 6300 wireless" which gave me Intel's support site for the card. I ran the "Automatically identify and find drivers" tool ( Intel® Driver Update Utility for wireless networking). It told me there was a newer driver, so I installed it. The newer driver worked. I DID NOT allow windows to manage WiFi after the new driver was installed. I am letting the Intel PROSet software manage the WiFi. The adapter shows in Device Manager after the new driver is installed. The wireless on/off DOES show under Settings->Change PC settings->Wireless after the new driver is installed.

This is the new driver
Product Detected Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300
Driver Installed 15.5.6.0
Intel® PROSet/Wireless WiFi Connection Utility Installed

 

There are about 50 different threads on the T430 and WIFI at T400 / T500 and newer T series ThinkPad Laptops - Lenovo Community

Sure sounds like Lenovo didn't do a good job with their "bread and butter" machine this time around.

 

Just received (2 weeks ago) T430, worked as on this forum, cold restart wifi shows, sleep, hibernation, gone, installed newest lenovo driver, disabled wake on LAN, unchecked switching off device to save power and ... so far so good, except once after sleep, but only hibernated and it came back fine - can live with that, now GPS will not pick satellites sometimes but going to sleep and returning seems to fix this quirk; well, can live with that for now, since Kaspersky AV software does not allow me to install newest driver for Ericsson WWAN card (virus warning?)

 

i had the same issue on my t400. the way that i fix it was to reseated the wireless card and then reinstall the wifi card driver. I also updated the BIOS just to cover my bases. After i did all of that it worked fine

 

Similar problem on my Lenovo T430. I had been using my laptop at work connected via a network cable and just left for home by closing the lid, pulling the cables and heading out. On opening at home the wireless was lost and did not even show in the device manager. I downloaded a new driver and 300 megs later it told me one of the files for the installer was corrupt so gave that plan up. Hitting the Fn+F5 key did not show the Wireless and and showed Bluetooth and Airplane mode.
Back at work I decided to try and roll back the driver and discovered that it had somehow been disabled. Once I selected enable tab the wireless driver reappeared.
So try going to device manager (click Start - right-click Computer - Properties) - expand Network Adapters - find your Wireless adapter (in my case was Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced_N 6205), right click it and right-click it, select Properties, click on Drivers tab and make sure the driver is set to Enabled and not Disabled as I had found mine.